Bob Lutz - Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business
Here you can read online Bob Lutz - Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. year: 2013, publisher: Portfolio, genre: Romance novel. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:
Romance novel
Science fiction
Adventure
Detective
Science
History
Home and family
Prose
Art
Politics
Computer
Non-fiction
Religion
Business
Children
Humor
Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.
- Book:Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business
- Author:
- Publisher:Portfolio
- Genre:
- Year:2013
- Rating:5 / 5
- Favourites:Add to favourites
- Your mark:
Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business: summary, description and annotation
We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.
One of the most acute books about management and how companies work in practice that I have read in a long time. If anyone wants to know exactly how the U.S. auto industry got into trouble, here is your guide.
John Gapper, FINANCIAL TIMES
When Bob Lutz got into the auto business in the early 1960s, CEOs knew that if you captured the publics imagination with innovative car design and top-quality craftsmanship, the money would follow. The car guys held sway, and GM dominated with bold, creative leadership and iconic brands like Cadillac, Buick, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, GMC, and Chevrolet.
But then GMs leadership began to put its faith in numbers and spreadsheets. Determined to eliminate the waste and personality worship of the bygone creative leaders, management got too smart for its own good. With the bean counters firmly in charge, carmakers, and much of American industry, lost their single-minded focus on product excellence and their competitive advantage. Decline soon followed.
In 2001, General Motors hired Lutz out of retirement with a mandate to save the company by making great cars again. As vice chairman, he launched a war against the penny-pinching number crunchers who ran the company by the bottom line and reinstated a focus on creativity, design, and cars and trucks that would satisfy GMs customers.
Lutzs commonsense lessons, combined with a generous helping of fascinating anecdotes, will inspire readers in any industry.
John Gapper, FINANCIAL TIMES
When Bob Lutz got into the auto business in the early 1960s, CEOs knew that if you captured the publics imagination with innovative car design and top-quality craftsmanship, the money would follow. The car guys held sway, and GM dominated with bold, creative leadership and iconic brands like Cadillac, Buick, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, GMC, and Chevrolet.
But then GMs leadership began to put its faith in numbers and spreadsheets. Determined to eliminate the waste and personality worship of the bygone creative leaders, management got too smart for its own good. With the bean counters firmly in charge, carmakers, and much of American industry, lost their single-minded focus on product excellence and their competitive advantage. Decline soon followed.
In 2001, General Motors hired Lutz out of retirement with a mandate to save the company by making great cars again. As vice chairman, he launched a war against the penny-pinching number crunchers who ran the company by the bottom line and reinstated a focus on creativity, design, and cars and trucks that would satisfy GMs customers.
Lutzs commonsense lessons, combined with a generous helping of fascinating anecdotes, will inspire readers in any industry.
Bob Lutz: author's other books
Who wrote Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.
Jim Seybert
Pfeffer
Michael W. R. Davis
Davidson
Bob Lutz
Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work
Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.
Light
Font size:
↓
↑
Reset
Interval:
↓
↑
Bookmark:
Make
Table of Contents
PORTFOLIO/ PENGUIN
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700,Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell,Victoria 3124,Australia
(a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand
(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue,
Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700,Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell,Victoria 3124,Australia
(a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand
(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue,
Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published in 2011 by Portfolio / Penguin,
a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Copyright Bob Lutz, 2011 All rights reserved
Materials from GM Media Archive. Used with permission of General Motors LLC.
Notes by Jack Hazen. Used with permission of Jack Hazen.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Lutz, Robert A.
Car guys vs. bean counters : the battle for the soul of American business / Bob Lutz. p. cm.
Includes index.
eISBN : 978-1-101-51602-7
1. Automobile industry and tradeUnited States. 2. New productsUnited States.
I. Title. II. Title: Car guys versus bean counters.
HD9710.U52L88 2011
338.76292220973dc22 2011010720
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials. Your support of the authors rights is appreciated.
Penguin is committed to publishing works of quality and integrity.
In that spirit, we are proud to offer this book to our readers;
however, the story, the experiences, and the words
are the authors alone.
In that spirit, we are proud to offer this book to our readers;
however, the story, the experiences, and the words
are the authors alone.
http://us.penguingroup.com
This book is dedicated to the hardworking men and women, at all levels, hourly and salaried, in the domestic U.S. automobile industry. The problems, mostly, were not your fault!
Preface
IT WAS IN 1979 IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. I HAD JUST BEEN ELEVATED TO president of Ford Europe and was conducting my first monthly quality meeting.
Fords quality was about average for Europe at the time, but we were having a major problem with our UK-built four-cylinder engines: camshafts (an essential part that controls the valves) were wearing out at a totally unacceptable rate. Some camshafts failed after as little as 10,000 miles, few lasted more than 15,000 miles, and the bulk of the repeat failures occurred soon after the expiration of the then-prevalent 12,000-mile warranty.
I asked what we were going to do to achieve industry-standard durability on camshafts. Manufacturing and Engineering had a number of solutions, all requiring some increase in parts cost and a nominal investment in equipment. I authorized these on the spot, and emphasized the need for speed in incorporating the changes.
End of story? Not quite! The finance guys piped up and informed me that I had, by my hasty decision, just blown a roughly $50 million hole in the profit forecast. It seems that was the amount of profit the Parts and Service organization was reaping by shipping an endless stream of shoddy, soft camshafts to hundreds of thousands of customers who had no other choice... theyve got to buy them. Yes, they had no choice... until their next vehicle purchase.
I ultimately prevailed, but I paid for it the rest of my time at Ford, gaining the reputation as a good product guy, but hes not bottom-line focused, not a sound businessman. This philosophy of treating the customer as a hapless victim to be exploited was endemic in American corporations, and it cost us dearly. I contend that I wasnt the lousy businessman. The MBA bean counters who were perfectly willing to sacrifice goodwill and reputation for a lousy $50 million in ill-gotten profit were the villains. And eventually the chickens came home to roost.
This book is about what happened to Americas competitiveness, and why. Most of the examples and observations are from the automobile sector, for the simple reason that thats what I know best, and I was a participant in the decades-long decline of General Motors. But the creeping malignancy that transformed the once all-powerful, world-dominating American economy from one that produced and exported to one that trades and imports is now common to all or most sectors.
It really boils down to a matter of focus, priorities, and business philosophy. Leaders who are predominantly motivated by financial reward, who bake that reward into the business plan and then manipulate all other variables to hit that number, will usually not hit the number, or, if they do, then only once. But the enterprise that is focused on excellence and on providing superior value will see revenue materialize and grow, and will be rewarded with good profit. Is profit an integral part of the business equation and a God-given right, no matter how compromised the product or service? Or is the financial result an unpredictable reward, bestowed upon the business by satisfied customers?
To some restaurant owners, people booking reservations weeks in advance is a sign that we did something wrong. Perhaps the food is too good... best to back off a bit on the quality of the meat and produce. Ease off on the butter! Well reduce cost, improve margins! And the customers, presumably, will keep coming, right?
But to other owners, the excess demand is a sign of success, of the formula working, of customers appreciating the value of their efforts. In this case, profit can be increased by selective higher pricing to keep the waiting times reasonable while gaining a premium reputation. Want to guess which restaurant will be in business longer, and be more successful?
There is a GM car, produced worldwide, which is hugely successful wherever it is produced and sold. It has great styling, is larger than its direct competitors, and generally exceeds customer expectations. It is profitable in a vehicle category in which that status is rarely achieved. A cause for celebration, of joy at having found the winning formula? Yes, but there are factions who complain that we overachieved; the car is better and richer than it needs to be, so lets correct back to the center line with the next model. Listening to those voices would put GM back on the downward slope. The drive to reduce cost, skimp a bit on service, ruthlessly pursue quarterly earnings targets no matter what the negative consequences has hurt American business from automobiles to appliances, as well as the service industries.
Light
Font size:
↓
↑
Reset
Interval:
↓
↑
Bookmark:
Make
Similar books «Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business»
Look at similar books to Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.
Jim Seybert
Pfeffer
Michael W. R. Davis
Davidson
Bob Lutz
Reviews about «Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business»
Discussion, reviews of the book Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.